Element
by Carline
Summary: Ryelle, Gaia, Clio, Sephy, Diana, Alyssa, Kasmira and Cassandra. Normal sixteen year old girls. Or so you thought. T rating just to be safe. Please R&R, flames accepted.
1. Meet the Team

OK, people, I decided to rewrite this, cause

It wasn't descriptive enough, and

I wasn't getting any reviews, dammit!

So here is the revised version. This time, please review, please, please, please! I'm getting depression here!

_**Meet the team**_

_Ryelle's POV_

I'm Ryelle. Normal teenage girl. At least on the outside. I've got black hair that comes down to my shoulders, brown eyes, and a temper that would put anyone to shame. I'm English, and proud to be it.

"Hey Ryelle, what're you doing?"

That's Gaia, my best friend. She's got a bit of a big mouth, and she swears a lot. She's also the only one that can ever stop me when I'm in a temper. She's not much better at controlling herself though, so I often do the same for her. She's American and she's also black. She's got these really beautiful black eyes, I swear, they really are pitch black, and she's got black hair as well. Black all over.

Then there's Clio. She's a year younger than the rest of us in our group, but she's in our year at school cause she's really smart. She's also very shy, and she needs protecting a lot. She's half albino, she got the white hair, but missed out on the red eyes. Instead, they're brown. She's Greek, she comes from Athens.

The last one in our quartet is Sephy. Her full name is Persephone, but that's too much of a mouthful for everyday use. She's got absolutely white skin, pitch black hair, and blue eyes. She's considered to be the prettiest of our quartet. She comes from Greece too, but I can never remember the name of the city she comes from.

There's another two sets in our group of eight. In one, there's Kasmira. She tends to think that boys are one of the most important things in life, along with make-up. We all call her Kaz. She's Russian, from Moscow. She's got blond hair, blue eyes, and she's really pretty. A bit snobbish too. She and Sephy are always at each others throats.

Her best friend's Cassandra. She's not quite so into boys, but she really cares about her appearance as well. She's French, so her real name's Cassandre, but she prefers Cassandra. She's got purple hair (yes, purple, I kid you not) and the same colour eyes.

The last set is made up of Alyssa and Diana. Alyssa is English, same as me, but we don't get along that well. She's got blue hair and blue eyes, so that makes three in our group to have everything in one colour.

Diana is our resident eco-warrior. She's another blond, but she's got green eyes. She's Australian.

We've all lived in Japan for quite a while, and now that we're all sixteen, we've got an apartment together in central Toyama. It's heaven with no adults around, but Kaz does her fair share of bossing us around.

That's it for the normal bit. The unusual bit about us is that we were born out of the elements, and we inherited the powers of those elements. I'm fire, Gaia's earth (like duh!), Clio's air, Sephy's dark (double duh!), Kasmira's light, Cassandra's magic (triple duh!), Diana is nature and Alyssa is water. Not quite as normal as you first thought, huh?

A few months ago, there was a group of warriors that had Talpa to deal with. We watched them fight, we even helped them when we were sure that no-one would see us. They managed to defeat Talpa. I'm glad they did, because if they hadn't the last defenders of the human realm would have had to step in. Us. And I wouldn't like to go through all that they did. Talpa would have been even more powerful, as well. But we don't know who they are really. That might be a good thing, because it's almost certain that they're boys, and Kaz would never have left them alone. Let's just be thankful for small mercies, as Gaia pointed out.

Back to normal, then, I guess. Or as normal as it ever gets for us. We'll probably never see the warriors again. We're starting school again in a week, but we've changed schools cause Gaia got into one too many fights, and she got kicked out. So we're all uprooting and going to Han'a High. And lets just hope that no-one starts flirting with Gaia. If they do, all hell will break loose. Gaia does _not_ like to be flirted with!


	2. Hell

**Yes, I know that I said the other fic would take precedence, but I've got a bit of a writers block on that one, so I'm working on this one instead. Can't make up my mind, can I?**

_**Hell **_

_Sephy's POV_

First day of school. Great. Just bloody wonderful. In case you didn't already know, my name is Persephone and I hate school. There is absolutely no point to it. I always get crap about my name, being a death goddess, and so on and so forth. I still haven't got around to sitting my parents down and having a long chat to them about why they decided to burden their daughter with such a name. Don't get me wrong, I like my name and all, but I just don't like the comments that come with it.

So, off to school. When we get on the bus, there's a huge mob of kids at the back, our favourite spot, so we sit at the front. Personally, I'm all ready to walk up to them and start a fight, so I can let a bit of my irritation off on them. But no, sadly not. Clio grabs my arm and pulls me into a seat beside her. I sigh in frustration. I hate losing to the kid of the group. Very good for my ego, I dare say.

We walk through the school gates. We've agreed to stay together as much as possible for today at least. Me and Kasmira will probably end up killing each other. A group of boys come up to us. Ryelle takes a good hold of Gaia's arm, just in case they're going to flirt with her. A fight on the bus is alright, there's no teachers there to stop you, but at school you usually get detention. Picture me looking resigned.

The boys are seriously cute! The blond one starts talking to us. Oh dear, flirt alert.

"So, you girls must be new?" he says, smiling at us. Ryelle tightens her grip. Kaz goes almost immediately into flirt mode. She is so fake!

"Yeah, we are" she replies, batting her eyelashes at him. "Why, are you offering to show us around?"

The guy looks pretty surprised, but recovers quickly. I exchanged glances with Cassie. She at least has her head screwed on straight when it comes to boys.

"Um, Kaz, I think we're supposed to go meet the head." Cassie says, grabbing her before she can protest and dragging her towards the school. The rest of us follow fairly quickly.

"Kaz, can't you ever get by one day without flirting?" Ryelle asks when we're out of earshot. "You just have to flirt with every guy in the school by the end of today, don't you? You're making a fool of yourself!" Kaz looks pretty surprised at her outburst. We all do.

The bell rings. Saved. At least for the moment.

The next half hour is a whirl of timetables, classes and teachers. In short, hell. My first class is with the entirety of our quartet. Excellent. Time to give the teachers a run for their money. Or rather, time to watch Clio give them a run for their money while we sit in the back of the class filing our nails and talking about boys and make-up. It's very useful having a genius in our group. Tee hee, tee hee. We walk into class.

"Ah, you must be the new students. I'm Professor Hawthorn, your English teacher. Now, if you could present yourselves to the class, in Japanese if you prefer." The old duffer we have as a teacher sits back in his chair and looks at us expectantly.

Ryelle takes first shot. "My name is Ryelle Riverson. I'm English."

"I'm Clio Teresca. I'm Greek."

"My name's Gaia Smith. I'm American."

My turn. Here goes nothing. "My name's Persephone Boreale, but I prefer Sephy, and I'm Greek too." And now we sit back and wait for the crap to start.

A blue-haired boy seems to be deep in thought.

"Isn't Clio the name of one of the Muses? The Muse of history? And Persephone's the name of the Greek goddess of the Underworld, just like Gaia's the name of the mother of the gods. Right?" The teacher smiles at him. Teacher's pet alert.

"Yes, I believe so." Turning to us, he says: "This is Rowen, our resident genius."

Gaia smirks. I've got to tell her to stop doing that, it really isn't that attractive.

"Hey, cool!" she says in a very fake innocent voice. "Clio's our resident Einstein. I..."

She trails off as I gave her a look. She has got to stop taking umbrage at everything.

Classes go fairly well for the morning, no major incidents, fights, or anything at all. Something is going happen. I just know it is.

We make our way over to the shade of a well positioned tree and proceeded to compare notes with Kaz, Cassie, Alyssa and Diana about our morning.

"Um, excuse me, but this is where we usually sit." We all turn around. It's the five boys from this morning. Shoot. I told you something would happen.

"Oh, sorry, we'll move." Ryelle says, getting up. Very smooth, Ryelle, now they have to let us stay.

"No, it's ok, don't bother." The speaker was a black-haired boy this time.

Ryelle smiles at him. Kaz has been teaching her how to flirt, and I must say she does it much better than Kaz herself. Maybe that's why she blew up at Kaz earlier, cause she wants first dibs on the black-haired one.

"Thanks" Cassie says, drawing attention off Ryelle. "So, what are your names? We may as well get acquainted."

The boys grin.

"I'm Sage." That's the blond one from earlier. Still as cute as ever.

"Resident Casanova." another boy adds. "My name's Kento."

"I'm Rowen, for those of you who don't already know me." the blue-haired guy says, glancing slyly at Gaia. She doesn't bat an eyelid. Good girl.

"I'm Cye." Fairly cute, brown hair, green eyes.

"I'm Ryo." This time it's the black-haired guy who's talking. He's got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. Tiger-blue.

I shake myself and give myself a mental slap. Ryelle saw him first and it's obvious she likes him already. I don't want to argue with one of my best friends about a boy. They're not worth it. I argue quite regularly with Kaz about boys (and everything else), but that's just for the enjoyment of having an argument with her. It's not that I don't like Kaz, but our elements clash and we're not that tolerant of each other in our element forms.

We introduce ourselves, and get the usual name business. Oh well. Can't have everything.

The boys all seem nice. Kaz walks away at the end of lunch with a date with Sage. I myself don't see why he likes her. I'm not jealous, though. He's not my type. Ryo however... STOP IT! I wonder if Ryelle will admit she likes him. I'm a matchmaker of the first quality, as any of my friends will tell you.

On the way home we drop off at the shops to get a few things. Kaz is already thinking about her make-up for her date. When we get home we all decide that it's an every girl for herself evening. Nobody bothers about any-one else. Relief.

**So? Comments, etc...? Come on, people, I love you and everything but I'd love you a lot more if you reviewed. That's just a nice little hint.**

**Carline**


	3. Patrol

**Thanks to Queen Diamond for her reviews (by the way, could you send me the e-mail address of the C2 site ? Thanks).**

_**Patrol**_

_Clio's POV_

Some-one shakes me awake. It's Ryelle.

"Get up" she hisses. "We've got problems."

I'm awake immediately. Our kind of problems usually concern the supernatural, and for that we all need our wits about us.

We meet up ten minutes later in the kitchen. Kaz, Alyssa and Diana are missing.

"Still in bed." Sephy tells me. "They didn't want to lose any of their beauty sleep."

My eyes widen. We need to be a full team. I look at the rest of the group. Light, nature and water was going to make a big gap in our fight strategy. I turn around and march up the stairs and into the others' rooms, waking them up rather rudely. Too bad for them. They should have got up in the first place.

The others look up grinning as we enter the room. Ryelle saves them from any comments, especially from Sephy, who's got one of the sharpest tongues I've ever heard.

"We should probably transform. If any-one sees us in our normal form they might ask some awkward questions." she says.

We nod. Sound reasoning. Whatever else we actually are, policemen tend to ask questions if they see a bunch of teenage girls walking around at this time of night.

Ryelle starts the transformation, quickly followed by the rest of us.

"Element of fire, burn!"

"Element of dark, engulf!"

"Element of earth, tremble!"

"Element of air, blow!"

"Element of light, brighten!"

"Element of water, flood!"

"Element of magic, enchant!"

"Element of nature, grow!"

One by one, we are slowly consumed by our elements, till we appear to be formed out of the very substance of these elements. Ryelle is a figure of flames, Sephy fades into the shadows of the room, Gaia becomes a figure of rock, I turn into the air itself, with only a faint outline to show where I am, Kaz is just a glow in the middle of the room, Alyssa is a pool of water on the ground, before she makes the water take the form of a body, Diana becomes a Dryad, and Cassie appears to be a figure of purple lightning, which is actually magic.

Without another word, we exit the room on an order from Ryelle via the mind link we all have. No jokes, no smart comments, no showing off. We can't afford to relax our guard. Anything could be waiting for us, even though they could never beat us. We are the ultimate guardians of this world. We are the elements.

Ryo's POV 

There's a disturbance downtown. We all armour up and leave the house. We make our way through the city, making little or no sound.

We arrive at our destination. Damn. Damn, double damn and triple damn. Talpa again. Suddenly I feel my armour reacting to something.

"What the hell!" I hear Sage say from just behind me. Apparently I'm not the only one.

Suddenly eight figures arrive on the scene. We stare in shock as they proceed to give the Warlords and Kayura the best trouncing they ever had, using attacks that take power from the elements. The one using fire seems to be a good fighter, going up against Kayura.

Then I look closer, then step back in shock. They are the elements themselves, figures made from the elements. I exchange glances with the guys. They agree with me. As soon as the elements have finished with the Dynasty, we need to make sure they aren't a menace to us or Toyama.

The Dynasty teleport back to their hellhole one by one, and the elements turn to leave. We jump down from the top of the building where we'd been watching their fight. They whirl around, readying for battle. It would seem they're not that trusting.

"That was quite some fight." Sage says. "We were watching."

The figure of fire answers him. "Why?" says a girl's voice. "How could that have benefited you?"

I frown. She seems familiar somehow.

"We were interested." Rowen answers. "Besides, we wanted to know who's side you're on."

"And your conclusion is...?" the girl of dark asks.

"We don't know." I answer. "If you want us to trust you then show us who you are."

The fire girl frowns. "Only if you show us who _you_ are."

I hesitate an instant, then remove my helmet. The others follow suit quickly.

The wind girl laughs. "I thought I could feel an unusual amount of power emanating from you earlier.

They become normal again. I'm stunned. It's the girls from school, all wearing robes of different colours. Ryelle is in red, Sephy in black, Clio in silvery-gray, Gaia in yellow-orange, Cassandra in purple, Diana in green, Alyssa in blue and Kasmira in white. The other guys seem equally amazed. They laughed at our reaction.

"You're not the only ones in the world with powers, you know." Gaia said, smiling at us. She's different from earlier, more confident, more trusting.

Sage clears his throat. "Maybe you should come back with us. We need to talk."

Ryelle looks at him. "What for? You know who we are, we know who you are. What else is there to talk about?"

"Maybe a plan for not getting in each others way. It'll make things easier."

"We don't need a plan. If you get in our way we'll kill you. That's all there is to it."

"You? Kill us? I don't think so." Kento looks amused.

"Yes. We'll kill you. Maybe not happily, but we'd do it without a second thought." Clio's one hell of a lot more aggressive than earlier.

Ryelle nods at the others, then they turn and leave, making no sound at all as they disappear into the night.


	4. Bitter

**Thankyou to my reviewers, and why didn't anyone tell me I'd forgotten the disclaimer?**

**Disclaimer: I do not, repeat _do not_ own Ronin Warriors. I do, however own the elements (the girls in the fic, not the actual _elements_). Thank-you for your attention, you may now read this chapter.**

_**Bitter**_

_Gaia's POV_

Why was it us? Why, of all the people in the whole damn world, did it have to be us? Don't get me wrong, it's kinda cool to have supernatural powers and all, but every now and then it would be nice to be normal. Every time we get anywhere near it, something happens and drags us back into the world we try to leave behind. It's like a nightmare, but we know we won't wake up at the end, because we can't. Because it's real.

We were born normal. We all have normal parents. Mine still live in America with my older brother. He's normal too. My parents totally freaked out when they found out that their 'little girl' can destroy a house just by looking at it. It first showed when I was ten years old, still living in Tennessee with my family. I was with my brother, and we were exploring an old house across the road from ours, when we heard something behind us. Being kids, we assumed it must be a ghost who had, naturally, haunted the house for centuries, so we got out as fast as we could to avoid coming face to face with it. When we were out, I was still a bit spooked. I thought how it was really creepy to have a haunted house near us, so I wanted it gone. I looked back at the house and told it to crumble into ruins. It did, right in front of our eyes, with no warning. That was the day everything changed.

My parents were scared of me. They didn't say as much, but it showed. Eventually they sent me to boarding school in England, where I met the others. We all had the same problem, the same detail that made us all different, so we became friends. The weirdest thing is that we all have pretty much the same history, as well. Ryelle's house caught on fire, Alyssa's house was flooded, Diana's garden was so overgrown that it was dangerous to walk through it in case of snakes, etc... All catastrophes that we dealt with, and subsequently came into our powers.

In due time we found out about our spiritual parents and patrons, as well. Our parents are, of course, the elements, but we've all got a different god or goddess as a last resort if ever we really need help. Sometimes they have the same names as us as well, although they generally prefer their Greek names to the Latin ones. Mine is Gaea, Ryelle's is Athena, Clio has all the Muses behind her, Sephy's is Persephone, Kasmira's is Zeus (do not, if you value your skin, call him Jupiter!), Cassie's is Aphrodite, Alyssa is Neptune (the one exception to the rule. He prefers his Latin name to Poseidon), and Diana is, of course, Artemis. Anyway. Back to the story.

We moved to Japan together when we were fourteen. We had had enough of boarding school, and we wanted a life of our own. We were all very good at languages, so we decided to move to Japan. So we told our parents about it. They weren't too happy, to say the least, but after a lot of phone calls, even more begging and a few threats we got our own way.

We went to the local high school for a year or two, then I got into one fight too many, so I got chucked out and the others followed me, so we came to Han'a High. Which is great, apart from the fact that there's a bunch of smart-ars boys with armour who are acting like they're God's gift to the world. Which is wrong, cause _we are_! What gets me the most is that they think they've had it real bad and everything, like they're the only ones who have problems. Maybe we're not the ones that need to wake up. Maybe it's them. They don't seem to realize that we're in the middle of a war. A war that's breaking out because they couldn't damn well finish what they started and kill Talpa. And now we have to do it for them. Gits.

I need to calm down. I could end up hurting someone if I just let all my bitter feelings loose at once. Cause that's what I am.

Bitter.

**Now review, buggerit!**


	5. Knowledge

_**Knowledge**_

_Cassie's POV_

My element is quite an odd one. It's not usually counted as an element by those who don't know about us. It means I can do all sorts of things. For one, I'm the only one in the group apart from Clio that can fly, because there's a spell that makes me weightless, yet still able to control myself.

I can see the future, too, sometimes. It comes to me in snatches, I can't make it happen. It's quite rare, too. Sometimes I go as much as a year without it happening, but that's only happened once. I always get my visions at night, as well.

I had a vision last night.

I saw us, last night, when we were with the Ronin Warriors. Then it skipped to, if I'm any judge, in about two months time, when it begins to get cold at the start of winter. I saw us again, fighting the Ronins... killing them. When the last one of them, Ryo, fell, I saw the world change. It turned into a desert, barren, with no life. No life, apart from us. We looked shocked, unbelieving. Then, a few minutes later, when I'd had time to take stock of it all, I saw us die as well. It was Kaz first, swallowed up by a great huge chasm in the ground. Diana followed her, then the rest of us. Ryelle was the last to go, holding on till the last, not letting go. Then she fell, and it was over. I knew where we had gone. We'd gone to hell, the place where everyone goes if they don't fill the expectations of the gods. We'd failed them. We were punished, and the entire world was punished with us.

Then the vision blurred and changed.

I saw us with the Ronins, again, last night. An alternate reality, another path. I saw us in a house, with them, talking and laughing. I saw us fighting the Dynasty together, and winning. After this I get a sequence of different images. I saw Ryo and Ryelle, in love, going out, eventually getting married, having kids, etc... I saw Persephone and Sage, Gaia and Kento, Alyssa and Cye, Clio and Rowen. I saw myself, as an aunt to my friends' kids, not falling in love because I was too happy as we were. On a sadder note, I saw two of us leave, not without pain, but leave nonetheless. Diana went back to Australia, leaving us an invitation to come and see her whenever we wanted, and I saw Kaz go back to Russia, not leaving us with anything.

The vision ended. I woke up, hot and sweating. Of all the visions I've ever had, that one was definitely the scariest.

I'm going to have to tell Ryelle. If we fight the Ronins the entire world's doomed, but it's going to take a lot to convince her of that. Stubborn as a mule is Ryelle.

I go into our living room. We've got a huge apartment, it's got four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a balcony. I clear my throat loudly. Everyone looks at me. I take a deep breath.

"I've had a vision." Everyone's immediately on the alert.

"I can't really explain it, so I guess I'm going to have to show you." I concentrate, then send my memory of the vision along our mind link.

At the end, we're all silent. None of the others want to accept it. Instinctively, we all turn to Ryelle. She's our leader, she must decide.

"What are we going to do, Ryelle?" Clio asks in a small voice.

Ryelle looks up. "Isn't it obvious? We're going to have to make peace with the Ronins."

Kaz grins. "And you're actually going to demean yourself to say sorry to them? You surprise me, Ryelle. I thought your ego was much too big for that!"

Ryelle doesn't, thankfully, rise to this bait. "Of course I am. If the alternative is to condemn the entire world, then I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

I smile at her. She's hotheaded, but she always seems to make the right decisions.

_Monday..._

So, here we are. We go into school as usual. The Ronins avoid us till lunch-time, when they can't. We go over to them, Ryelle in the lead. She stops next to them. They all look up.

Sage's voice is icy. "Can we help you?"

Ryelle bites her lip. "We need to talk."

"Oh, really? So you've decided you'll stay off killing us for a couple of days, then?"

"Look, I know what I said was wrong, and stupid, and I'm ready to admit it. The fact is that we need to talk, and fast."

Ryo looks at her for a second, then obviously decides she's telling the truth. He nods.

Ryelle grins. "Can we meet you this evening round at your place? It's probably safer than here."

"Yeah, sure. We'll meet you here at the end of lessons."

"Ok."

We walk off, trying not to show how relieved we are.


	6. Belief

**Oh dear... Here I am again, some years later, finally updating this fic... I really need to pull my act together... I'm not going to say thanks to the reviewers cause no-one did review. Go figure. **

_**Belief**_

_Kasmira's POV…_

I don't believe it. Ryelle, coming down and saying sorry? There's a turn-up for the books. She _never_ says sorry. She's an immature brat with absolutely no feelings. I mean, sure, I respect her and all, as our leader, but she acts like she's twelve years old instead of sixteen. I tried to teach her to flirt once, but she doesn't ever listen to anybody.

I don't really have a best friend in this little team. They all think I'm really superficial or something. Cassie's the only one who puts up with me. She's alright, I guess. I'd like to be one of the quartet, with Clio, Ryelle, Sephy and Gaia, even though they aren't my favorite people in the world. I'd like to have friends, proper ones, not just pals. I don't think it's ever going to happen, though. Sephy in particular hates me.

We went round to the Ronin's house (or rather, mansion) straight after school. We all kept to our respective groups, elements with elements, Ronins with Ronins. Nobody said anything.

The door was opened by a woman a few years older than us, who looked extremely surprised to see us there. The guys must have told her about us.

We made our way through the hall, into the living room. Gods, this place was huge! All eight of us sat down, looking very self conscious. Ryo sat opposite Ryelle.

"I think you owe us an explanation."

Ryelle grimaced. "Ok, to start off with, sorry for the other night. We were a tad nervous, and it just sort of came out the wrong way."

"As long as you can give us a reasonable explanation for saying it, we'll let it go." Ryo wasn't making this easy.

"Ok, I guess I'd better start with who we all are. We're supernatural beings who have decided to put themselves into the bodies of teenage girls..." Ryelle trails off into an explanation of exactly what we are. I tune out, I can't be bothered to listen. Instead, I look properly at all the Ronins, taking in who they are.

Cye was wearing light blue armor the night we met, he must be water. Brown-red hair, green eyes... quite cute in an innocent kind of way.

Rowen... can't really tell from the color, but maybe air and wind, like Clio. Blue hair, blue eyes, pale skin... all he'd need would be blue teeth and he'd look like a zombie.

Ryo must be fire, he's the same colors as Ryelle. He's cute, no two ways about it. Beautiful eyes.

Sage... either nature or light. I think light, since Diana's supposed to be leaving, so he can't be the same as her. On second thought, I'm meant to be leaving, too... Have to wait and find out.

Kento has the same color armor as Gaia's robes, so he must be earth. Black-blue hair, and grey eyes? It's hard to see from here.

If it did come to a fight, we'd probably win from sheer force of numbers. There are three more of us than there are of them. Plus they seem to be a tad on the thick side, but then again, they're boys. Go figure.

Ryelle's got to the bit about Cassie's prophecy. She must have got the bit about Sage's girlfriend wrong, though. He _can't_ prefer Sephy to me. She doesn't tell them about their future girlfriends, though. Probably a good idea, they'd freak if they knew. Can't blame them, really. I don't like my life dictated to me, and I'm used to it. Cassie comes out with these all the time (or at least it seems like it).

Ryo's eyes were practically popping out of his head. "You can see the future!" he asked Cassie.

"Only occasionally, I can't make it happen."

"Wow..." Kento seemed struck dumb, although from what I can see of his level of intelligence, that's probably not that hard to do.

"So we're on the same side, then?" Rowen asked, looking right at Ryelle.

"Guess so."

Cye grinned. "That's a relief. I really didn't want to have to fight you lot!" We all smile, bit the air's still very tight.

Ryo breaks the silence. Poor guy, he seems to get all the hard work. "You guys want something to eat? Mia's a really good cook."

Clio smiles. "That'd be great. Al's an alright cook, I s'pose, but she does have a tendency to burn things."

"The worst part is that I'm the best cook of all of us. The only time Clio tried to cook, she set the oven on fire, burnt out the microwave and flooded the entire flat. We haven't let her near the kitchen since." Alyssa retorts. The Ronins laugh. Clio sighs.

"Look, Al, if you want coaching for your math test this is not the way to go about it." We all laugh this time and follow Kento into the kitchen.

So that's that, then. No worrying about the fate of the world or anything. I mean, who the hell is powerful enough to take us all on and win. There can't be someone like that. It's not possible. I don't believe it.

_

* * *

_

**Very short, abominably so, even... I'll try to make the next one longer... and quicker.**

**Carline**


	7. Wrong

**I just posted the last chapter, so I might actually get this up quite soon. Thanks to the reviewer, P.M., you are deeply appreciated for actually taking the time to review. If I could get a few more next time, that'd be great... Not to put any pressure on anybody...**

_**Wrong**_

_Alyssa's POV..._

And here we are, back again, same bat time, same bat place. Back at the flat, and I'm cooking dinner. Again. It would be nice if one of the others could do this, but since they can't cook...

Let's see, stir fry, chicken with a few veg and noodles. It's hell cooking for eight.

« Hey Al. » That's Diana.

« Look, don't want to be rude or anything, but I'm a little busy. »

« I was just wondering if you wanted some help. »

Di is such a lifesaver.

« Would you? Thanks, could you grab some bean sprouts and some carrots from the fridge? »

« Sure... So, what d'you think of the Ronins? »

What do I think? I think we were better off not knowing about them.

« They're ok, I guess. Why? »

« Just wondering... Ok, fine. What about Cye? »

« He's a complete innocent. »

« You think? Cassie and the others seem to take them seriously enough. »

Cassie being the only one of the other elements that we really like. The others are ok, and Kasmira's a total bitch, Cassie's just a better friend.

« Yeah, well. Ryelle likes them coz she likes Ryo, Sephy thinks they're ok because Ryelle likes them, Clio likes them coz of Rowen, Kasmira likes them coz she's got a crush on Sage, and Cassie likes them because she believes so implicitly in her foresight that everything's gonna be ok, but I can't actually believe Gaia likes 'em. »

« Well no... » Di admits. « I think they're ok, though... Why don't you like them? »

« I think they're just going to get in our way. They'll want to have a say in everything we do, and I can't stand people who always stick their oar in... »

« Bit harsh, aren't you? »

« Not really. Personnally I agreed with Ryelle when she told them that if they got in our way we'd kill them. It was just simpler. But know, what with that vision of Cassie's, etc, we're going to have to be friends with them. »

There. I've said it.

« Then you don't think that vision is the only way out of this? »

« No... I've never had that much faith in Cassie's foresight. It's too unreliable. I don't like basing an entire strategy on a possible future. »

Diana seems to consider before she answers. « I know what you mean, but I do trust Ryelle more than I'd ever admit to her face. »

I laugh, more at the truth in it than anything else. « Mmmm... Well, I s'pose if I don't like Cye enough, we could always switch places. »

Diana grins. « Not a chance! He looks alright to have as a friend, but much too drippy and boring for a boyfriend. Ryelle and Sephy definitely got the good end of the deal! »

« Ok, I'll admit that Ryo and Sage are really quite good-looking. Cye just isn't my type of bloke. »

« Couldn't agree more. I think I might try to go out with one of them, just for the hell of it! »

« Yeah right! Ryelle, Sephy and Kaz would all kill you if you even tried! »

« Pity... » Diana grins and pulls a pan off the stove. We dish it all up and give the others a yell. The only perk of cooking is that you always get first dibs.

We both head into our bedroom to eat at our desks to continue our chat. We do have a proper table, but no-one ever uses it.

There's four bedrooms in the flat, all leading into the sitting room, which has a doorway through to the kitchen. Cassie got the bad deal of having to sleep in the same room as Kaz, Ryelle shares with Gaia and Sephy with Clio.

As we sit down, we hear the sound of approaching elephants (everyone else going to get their dinner).

Diana tucks into her dinner, and consequently starts talking with a full mouth. « We should probably give them a chance, though... Or rather you should. I'm leaving, so I don't have to worry about it. »

« You really think you'll leave? »

« Nah... Couldn't leave you to cope with everyone else on your own, could I? Although I s'pose Kasmira's leaving, so it wouldn't be that bad. »

I roll my eyes. « Much as I want to believe she'll finally go away, it just seems to be too good to be true. »

« No kidding... Hey, d'you reckon that if we start having fights with each other it'd have the same effect as us fighting the guys? »

« Probably, why? »

« Because I think Kaz'd look very nice with a black eye. She can't fight to save her life, so there wouldn't be that much of a risk. »

I grin. « Much as I'd like to sometimes, Ryelle'd probably blow up at us just a little bit. »

« Mmmm... Ah well. »

After dinner we find out that Sephy's gone and rented a film from the store just round the corner. Four Weddings and a Funeral. Di and I have both seen it, so we decide to go revise for tomorrow. We're actually the only ones who ever revise in this group. Clio doesn't need to, obviously, the rest of the quartet copy off her, and Cassie and Kaz simply don't care enough.

We settle down, me at my desk, and Di just collapses onto her bed.

I hate revision. The only good thing about school is being together, to be able to chat, or if you've got a completely bonkers teacher.

My mind flicks back to my conversation with Di. Cassie's vision's wrong. It has to be.

* * *

**This was really easy to write. Sorry to all the Cye fans out there, but he just irritates me.**

**Carline**


	8. Alone

_**Alone**_

_Diana's POV..._

Oh God... That's my alarm already... I hate mornings.

It's a month after we made up with the Ronins. Between then and now the Dynasty has done precisely... nothing. Either they're just too scared of us or they're planning something. Personnally I'd plump for the latter. There's no way an evil Emperor is going to be scared of a bunch of teenagers. Slightly wary, maybe, but not scared.

Al's up already. She's always been a really early riser. Which is a good thing seeing as she always gets breakfast.

I actually manage to make it into the kitchen in time to get something to eat before leaving for the bus. This is unusual. I must be coming down with something.

We get off the bus at school and head to various classes. Al and I have Maths. First thing in the mornings. Groan. Picture me slowly disappearing into a sinkpool of despair.

When we come out at break, we get a little bit of a shock. There's a bloody great castle hanging over Toyama. Great. Just peachy.

Me and Al head towards the others, who've grouped round the Ronins. When we get near them, Kaz turns towards us and smiles insipidly.

« So glad you could join us. We're not interrupting anything, are we? »

I hate her. I just hate her.

« Shut up, Kaz. » Ryelle says, obviously seeing that I'm about to explode. « So, you guys are used to this, what do we do? »

Ryo rolls his eyes. « Thanks Ryelle. I have no idea. We can't get across to the Dynasty without help from the Ancient, so unless he turns up, all we can do is sit tight and wait for Kayura and the Warlords to show up. »

« Great plan, guys. » It would seem I was wrong when I said Sephy liked them.

School gets cancelled for the day, due to a general incapacity on the teachers' part to take lessons with a castle hanging upside down in the sky. How very feeble of them. We girls start off down the road to our flat, when we get called back by the Ronins.

« What the hell do you think you're doing? We might need to fight and we're much stronger together. You'd better come back to the mansion. » Sage tells us, obviously expecting to be obeyed to the letter. Al just gives me a look that says 'I told you so...'. I hate it when she's right.

Ryelle just looks straight back at him. « We're more than capable of dealing with the Dynasty on our own, and I would naturally assume that you would be able to do the same. » YEAH! Go Ryelle!

Sage stares at her, and Rowen takes up the conversation. « More than capable, since we've done it twice before. You, however, have only fought them once. You're completely untested. We've beaten Talpa twice now. » Arrogant git.

Sephy snorts. « You call what you did beating him? All you did was push his invasion back a few months each time. And you managed to get three members of your team captured and tortured. You call that beating him? » Oooh, ouch.

Gaia takes up after her. « And who told you we were untested? We've fought beings ten times as powerful as Talpa and come out of it without a scratch. » She's exaggerating a bit there, but never mind. She ended up with a broken leg and Cassie was in hospital for a month. Kaz actually died, but got promptly sent back to us to finish her 'task'. Personnally, I'd have preferred that the gods just keep her there, but they probably can't stand her either.

« Oh really? » Kento's joined in now. « Ten times as powerful as Talpa isn't possible. At least, not for you to beat them. You're exaggerating. » Rumbled...

Clio fixes him with that really unnerving gaze of hers. I swear it's really creepy. « Oh really? Tell me, when was the last time you fought a god? » Good girl Clio...

That's really put them in a corner.

Ryo cuts in calmly. « Well of course if you want to fight against us and condemn the entire world to die, that's your choice, of course... » Oh, now, that was low.

Al bursts. « We don't necessarily want to fight you, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that I would appreciate not to be given orders. » Phew... We haven't lost... Yet.

Cye decides to stck his oar in. « You asked what we should do. I believe Sage has told you. You're free to do what you want, but what he told you would probably be the best course of action. » At this rate I'm going to leave sooner than Cassie foresaw.

Cassie smiles slightly. « Look, this is stupid. We really shouldn't argue... » Cass, shut up! We're almost winning here!

Kaz grins insipidly. « Yeah, she's right. We'll come back with you. » Bitch.

I'm really furious now. « Speak for yourself, Kasmira. » And I turn and leave.

Al's definitely followed me. I don't know about the others. When she catches up with me, I turn and grin. « That was fun. »

She smiles back weakly. « Not really. All the others have gone with the Ronins. It's just us who haven't. » Oh dear.

« What did Ryelle look like when you left? »

« Ready to explode. I can't believe Kaz did that. And Cassie... »

« Yeah, well. Why did the others go? »

« Why do you think? The quartet always follows Ryelle and she decided to go along with what Cassie said. We're in very deep trouble. »

« Trouble doesn't even begin to describe... Why on earth did Ryelle go with Kaz? She hates her almost as much as we do. »

« No idea. » Alyssa's looking downright mournful now. « Probably because she doesn't want to argue with a team-mate in front of the Ronins. Plus she believes what Cassie said about us fighting with them. »

We get back to our apartment and walk in. Almost immediately we get a twinge from this kind of sixth sense thing we all have, which tells us when there's a problem nearby. The others are in trouble. They're fighting the Dynasty. Without us.

I turn to Al. She's felt it too, I can tell by her face. « Well? What do we do? »

« We'll go down, but keep out of sight and only intervene if it's absolutely necessary. » I nod, and we transform.

So it's just the two of us. Alone. Without any of the others to save our butts if we get into trouble. Bummer...

* * *

**These chapters are just walking out at the moment. **

**Carline**


	9. Run!

_**Run!**_

_Ryelle's POV..._

I don't believe this is happening. We've lost two team members, due to overall stupidity of Ronins and the Dynasty's got one hell of a lot stronger lately. I'm fighting back to back with Gaia, Sephy and Clio. The Ronins are in the most trouble. We at least are holding our own. They can't even hold back the simplest attack. I hope to whatever gods may be listening at this particular moment that Al and Di'll arrive soon. What I've heard of the Gargoyles doesn't make me want to be anywhere near them. It's also my most likely destination at the moment. Great. Fabbity fabby fab. Just marvy.

Five minutes later I'm fighting Kayura. Doesn't she ever just give in gracefully? She's winning now, though... I won't last much longer... Parry, thrust, block, swipe, jab, parry... This could go on forever and she's not even breaking a sweat. Her katanas always seem to be ready and waiting to catch mine. I can't win.

Kaz gives out. I can hear her screaming as they transport her to the Dynasty. One down. She's the first of us to go. The Ronins lost Cye and Rowen quite early on. Only eight of us left, now. Me, Sephy, Clio, Gaia, Cassie, Ryo, Sage and Kento.All of us against Kayura, Sekhmet, Kale, Dais... And tons of Tin Cans. Where the hell are Al and Di?

Kayura grins at me and sends me flying with a kick to the jaw. Owwwww. She turns around, only to find the rest of the quartet glaring at her. I try signalling to them as I'm picked up by a Tin Can. _Get away! You can't beat them! Get away! Run!_

I black out.

_

* * *

Alyssa's POV... _

Running. I hate running at the best of times, but it's just so much worse when you're running to save your friends. It's so frustrating. You can never go fast enough.

We get to where we know the rest of our team is. Like I said, never fast enough. Ryelle and Kaz have gone. I don't care about the Ronins.

I melt down into water, and from the slight whisper I hear beside me I know that Di's switched into her Dryad form. We slip down the building into a side alley. We look at each other for a second, then I nod, and we round the corner and blast whatever comes to hand first. I get Sekhmet, Di takes out Dais. Two down. The rest of the Elements look round at us. Somehow I get the feeling they're not too happy with us. Too bad for them. They should have followed us.

The rest of the Dynasty disappears as it becomes clear they won't win. We get mobbed as soon as the last one disappears.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? Where were you?" Sephy really is angry, although I can't blame her. I'd probably be in a similar state if Di had been captured.

Kento picks up. "We've just lost four of us due to the fact that you weren't here!"

I narrow my eyes. I'll take it from Sephy because I respect her right to be furious about this, but he has no right to blame me for this."We weren't here coz we dislike being talked to as objects. I personnally couldn't care less about Torrent and Strata. The ones I'm worried about are Ryelle and ... Well, not so much Kaz."

Gaia looks at us searchingly. It's hard to hide anything from Gaia. She never tells lies, so you can't lie back to her. She can always tell. "To be honest, Sephy, I don't think I'd blame them as much as the guys. I was quite ready to kill them earlier and I know you were in much the same state. Clio was too. We can't blame them for actually having the guts to walk away and not follow Kaz, stupid bitch that she is."

Sage's turn next. "What! We told you what would be best because you asked us and if you chose not to go with it that's your own problem. This is your fault!"

Oh dear. Another argument. What a shame.

Cassie steps in. "Look, maybe we should think about how we're going to get them out instead of bickering about who's fault it is."

She promptly gets pushed out of the way by Gaia. We're all getting riled now. Ryo looks ready to kill, as do most of us elements. Kento and Sage look way past that.

So, five girls against three boys, since Cassie's refusing to take sides. No way we'll lose this.

Sephy starts to fade back into a shadow, a sure sign that she's about to blow. "You do what you like about your friends. We lost this fight coz you offended two of our team. You're on your own. We'll get Ryelle and Kaz back on our own. The other two can stay there to rot for all I care." She says coldly. "Come on, girls." She turns and walk off into the fog that's started to build up. We all follow her. No exceptions this time.

When we get back to our flat, Cassie collapses into tears. "God, you lot are so stupid! We can't afford to fight them! The entire world'll suffer if we do!"

Sephy crosses the room to her. "I don't give a damn about the rest of the world. I'm worried about Ryelle. I don't care about Kaz, seeing as it's her fault we're in this mess in the first place. She can go to hell. Oh, and another thing. If you think I'm ever going to go out with that complete bastard of a Halo, you've got another thing coming, girl." Oooooh, she's angry now.

Cassie looks slightly stunned. Can't really blame her.

Sephy turns back to the rest of us. "Ok, so this is bad. We're two down, and we have no idea how to get to the Dynasty. Any ideas? Oh, and the first person that mentions the Ronins will be sent down to hell to argue about it with my patronness."

We don't say anything for a while, then Clio breaks in. "The Dynasty has quite a lot of power in it, wouldn't you say?" We all nod slowly. "Then there has to be a break in their shield somewhere. Somewhere where we can open a way through."

Gaia raises her eyebrows. "That went by a little fast."

"All places of extreme power that have a shield around them need a... a hole to let all the excess energy out through their shield. All we have to do is find the loophole, open a portal and hop through."

Sephy rolls her eyes. "You make it sound so easy."

Clio looks surprised. "It is, though. Me and Cassie should manage it on our own."

Sephy looks back at her, a grin slowly forming on her face. "You're serious?" Clio nods. "Then do it. I'm not leaving Ryelle in there any longer than necessary."

**

* * *

And voilà, new chapter! Just so you know, I'm not putting the next chapter up unless I get two reviews on this fic. Flame if you like, I don't really care any more.You have been warned. **

**Carline**


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